The Rev. Tim Ahrens, one of the founders of We Believe Ohio, said he spit his coffee across the room when he read in the paper what this conservative pastor had said on the statehouse steps. Ahrens immediately sent a message around to colleagues asking, “Is what you are seeing in the public square reflective of the Christian faith you have known and lived?” Across central Ohio he received replies from dozens who said “NO!” We Believe Ohio came into being out of their collective “No” to this view of “traditional religious values” and their “Yes” to the need to raise their voices for a more just and equitable Ohio. It is this group’s self-described mission to “unite diverse religious voices to achieve social justice.”

The entry of Ahrens and the other 150 religious leaders of that group into the fray in Ohio was so powerful in changing that state’s conversation about faith and public values that by the fall of 2006 the media were reporting “God Gap Closes in Ohio”.

Where conservatives and liberals agree is that religion does and should have a role in shaping public values and policy. Where disagreement arises is over the assumption, until recently largely unchallenged, that religious values were the exclusive property of conservative Republicans.

After this week, few can continue to argue that “faith” is only the province of one political party. The Sojourners presidential forum on faith, values and poverty convened the leading Democratic presidential candidates for a discussion of faith and public life as well as faith in their private lives. From the role of prayer in times of family trouble to the role of God in foreign affairs, the topics discussed by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in this forum ran the full gamut of the way faith motivates and challenges us as individuals, as communities and as a nation. Their powerful faith witness showed that religion and public life is alive and well and diverse!

The United States is the most religious pluralistic nation in the world and one of the most religious nations in the world in terms of expressed belief in God. It is natural that such a nation would want to see how faith informs important issues we confront such as poverty, war and immigration, as well as how faith can help us in our own lives. It is important that all the religious voices of the nation be represented in the public square.

It is frankly idolatrous for one political group to claim to speak for God. God is not a God of the gaps in our political or even religious lives, but an infinite spirit whose will we all struggle to discern.